Video: On the Red Carpet for SUMMER, 1976 Opening Night
May 17, 2024
Check out footage from the opening night red carpet of MTC's Summer, 1976!
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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Laura Linney and Jessica Hecht are back on Broadway in David Auburn's new play, Summer 1976
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directed by Daniel Sullivan. And we're here on opening night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater
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to catch up with the First Nighters. ♪♪ Well, first of all, it is opening night, Barry
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How excited are you tonight? Completely over-the-moon thrilled. A wonderful, commissioned new play by David Auburn
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directed by his longtime colleague, Daniel Sullivan, and particularly Laura Linney and Jessica Hecht
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together on that stage. You can't ask for anything more. On a beautiful set designed by John Lee Beatty
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who's done like a zillion shows for us. And it's also my last Broadway show
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at the Manhattan Theater Club, so it's a special and poignant night for me as well
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So this is a big year for you, right? This is a big year. This is my 50th season of being the Artistic Director
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of the Manhattan Theater Club. Well, first of all, congratulations on that
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That is a really big number, what you and Barry have done with Manhattan Theater Club
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I've watched it from the very beginning of where it all started. Really? Oh, yeah
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Really? Way back? Well, you would have started with me then in 1972
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and it took me a couple of years to find Barry. But I hired him, and he has been with me for 48 years
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and it's been an amazing partnership and an amazing theater, hasn't it
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How did this play come about for you to write? It's really transformed in rehearsal
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which in a way that I didn't expect. I thought that I had sort of written these plays with monologues in them. Yeah
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And what it became is a dialogue. The whole show is really a conversation between them
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So it grew into that relationship in a way that I had never really anticipated, and which I really love
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Now, being in the room with those two actresses, what was that like for you
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at the helm with Daniel Sullivan? It was just pure pleasure. I mean, usually you worry about lots and lots of things
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going on in the production of a play. This one, I didn't have to worry about any of that
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I had to worry about the script, but I knew everything else was going to be beautiful
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Oh, I'm crazy excited. I know absolutely nothing about it, except that it's two of the best actresses
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working these days, and ultimately that's why I go to theater. Isn't that great, a new David Orburn play
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directed by Daniel Sullivan, starring Laura Linney and Jessica Hecht? Yes, it's an embarrassment of riches
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I'm very, very excited. Well, we sure do love these two actresses
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and we love David Orburn, and we love Dan Sullivan. How could we go wrong
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And Manhattan Theater Club, of course. I think it's doomed. How excited are you two to be here tonight
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Very excited. I mean, these two women, Laura Linney and Jessica Hecht
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I mean, they're extraordinary. They're both friends, so we're just thrilled to see them both together on stage
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I've been on stage with both of them, and I'm gigantic fans of both of them
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and we're all, we're like family. It's family for us. Well, they're two of the finest actresses we have
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and so, and Dan Sullivan directing, and an Auburn play, so I think we're in good shape here
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I came because the summer of 1976 was very big for me
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So I'm expecting a lot. I hope they mention me, actually. You'll have to wait and see
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but was that the year you said, I'm gonna become an actor? It actually was. Was it really
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Yeah, yeah, at the end of that summer was the first time I auditioned for a play
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I, you know, Jessica is one of my dearest, dearest friends and one of my favorite artists
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so the idea that I get to come, I'm a little playing hooky, but I'm excited to be here tonight
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to see her do anything, and Laura I've worked with, I love her. I mean, I'm excited to see the two of them tear it up
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How excited are the two of you to be here for summer 1976? I'm so excited
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You know, both these performers are just amazing people that I know
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and they're wonderful, they're fantastic, so I'm looking forward to seeing this play
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I know nothing about it yet, but I wanna, I can't wait. But isn't that great to go to the theater
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It's a brand new play. You just go and you go on a journey. Exactly, and like, you know
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just who wouldn't wanna go and see those whole team that's a Manhattan Theater Club
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and it's just wonderful work again, over and over again, and we're just, you know, we're looking forward to it
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I love this theater, and I love those girls, and they're such wonderful actors
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and I've worked with both the playwright and the director, so a Manhattan Theater Club is a huge home for me
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so it's a gorgeous evening, and I'm psyched. Oh my gosh, you know, Dan Sullivan
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was one of my teachers in grad school, and my first year is when David Auburn
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won the Tony and the Pulitzer for Proof, and so being able to, and that was in Illinois
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so being front row center for this opening, it feels like a full circle moment
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and Dan is actually retiring from my alma mater this year, so I'm just so happy to celebrate them all
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How excited are you to be here tonight for Summer of 1976? I cannot wait
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I love both these actresses. I've never worked with Jessica, but I have worked with Laura
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and I love Dan Sullivan, and I love this writer, so I'm really looking forward to it
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I saw Goodnight Oscar last night, a brand new play, which I loved
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which is fantastic, and then New York, New York tomorrow night. This is what New York is about
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and that's why it's the greatest city in the world. Now it's like your career started here
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really, at MTC, didn't it? Very much so. Yeah, very much so
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So it must be so great. I mean, just talk about what this home of MTC has meant to you
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It's such an unusual thing for a playwright, especially in the 21st century, to have a home
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where you can return time after time, work with many of the same people
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and have a kind of consistency in a career that otherwise is very up and down
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and very uncertain, so it's a real life preserver in a lot of ways
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You know, what's great is this city has so much talent in it
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and so many wonderfully talented people have found their way to us repeatedly
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and so many new people appear every year, so that's what keeps us all feeling vital
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and remembering the excitement of live theater
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